Can you believe it’s been two full years since we formally unveiled the Dell Partner Program? We’ve accomplished so much and come so far in that time, because of you, our partners. You might remember us talking in the past about being a $43 billion business. That was great, but we had our sights set higher… and you sure delivered! In the 12 months leading up to Q4, Dell Technologies partners delivered $49 billion in orders[i]. That means you have grown your businesses with us by six billion dollars! That kind of growth is just outstanding. It means we have more money to invest in R&D, more money to invest in partner tools and incentives, and more money to invest in our bright futures together.
This week, we’re thrilled to unveil the 2019 Dell Partner Program. As always, this year’s program is the product of partner feedback. While the vast majority of the program stays consistent, we are introducing a few key updates designed to raise the bar on what it means to be Simple. Predictable. Profitable.™
Without further ado, here are the top five things to know about the 2019 Dell Partner Program.
#1. We’re Protecting Your Investments with Partner of Record. Last year, we launched the Partner Preferred Program, which introduced Partner of Record to protect partners’ investments in new business. Partners told us this was the type of engagement they were looking for, so we’re extending the Partner of Record designation to protect historical business as well. If you’re listed on an account as a storage or server “Partner of Record,” the Dell end-user sales teams will work all new deals in that line of business through you. This is all about protecting partners’ investments in customers, where they have strong relationships, and driving greater collaboration with Dell’s core sales teams.
#2. Storage, Data Protection and HCI Place Partners in the Fast Lane. With storage remaining top of mind, we’re extending the programs and incentives you’ve told us are working. The Test Drive Program will now include X2, Unity, Isilon, PowerMax and DP4400 to help partners deepen customer relationships and close deals faster.
We’re also extending our 2% Tech Refresh and 8% Competitive Swap rebates through the first half of the year, and extending the 3x Storage/Data Protection and 1.5x Hyper-converged Infrastructure Tier multipliers for the full year. That means every dollar of Storage or Data Protection is counted three times towards program revenue tier requirements and HCI is counted 1.5 times.
Lastly, we have restructured our rebate and MDF product categories with clear delineations between Storage, Data Protection, and HCI. This will ensure alignment to these core market segments, as well as make it easier for our partners to manage how they can earn financial incentives.
#3. We’re Simplifying Tier Requirements and Sparking a Gold Rush. We’ve simplified the revenue requirements down to a single revenue path and removed the requirement to sell multiple lines of business. Partners are already taking advantage of selling across our full portfolio and enabling them to reap significant financial benefits as a result. By reducing to a single path, partners can more easily navigate tier attainment.
For the Gold Tier, we’re reducing the number of individuals required to complete training. To move from Authorized to Gold, only one sales and one systems engineer is required to complete the training. This will enable more partners to attain the Gold Tier and start earning benefits.
#4. We Want You to Spend Less Time Training, More Time Selling. Your time is valuable and should be spent helping customers. Starting this year, we are simplifying the training process to maintain a Product, Solution and Marketing credential. You will maintain credit for courses completed in 2018, and will only be required to complete new or refreshed courses in 2019.
Services Competencies will now be counted towards program requirements. Earning any Product, Solutions, or Services Competency will count towards next year’s program requirements. Also new this year is the launch of a Data Analytics Solutions Competency, which we know is quickly becoming part of everyday business.
#5. We’re Driving Consistency and Predictability in Rebates and Earned MDF. We’re investing heavily in making it easier to do more business with us. We consolidated the payment process to make it easier to understand and reconcile payments, we aligned MDF and rebate calculations to product categories for simpler tracking, and we continue to enhance the MDF tool to improve your user experience.
We can’t thank our partners enough for providing the feedback that guides our priorities and builds our programs. This year, we will continue working to be the best, in the eyes of our partners.
As we kick off the new program, I encourage all our partners to:
- Log on to the Dell Partner Portal to access updated program materials including Program Guides, Benefits and Requirements documents, FAQ documents and more.
- Register for Global Partner Summit, April 29-May 2, 2019. This is our biggest partner event of the year. It’s your best opportunity to lean in to Dell Technologies, get hands-on training, hear first-hand about our latest products, solutions and initiatives, network with our teams, and have a whole lot of fun along the way. Let us know if you’re coming, using #DellGPS.
It’s the first week of our brand-new program year. Let’s start it off strong!
[i] Based on TTM order run rate as of Q3FY19
